113 Famous Quotes by Robert Burns
1/25/1759 - 7/21/1796
Also Known As:
Rabbie Burns
Ploughman Poet
The Bard
Professions:
Information:
About Robert Burns
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a light Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these his political or civil commentary is often at its bluntest.
He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism, and a cultural icon in Scotland and among the Scottish Diaspora around the world. Celebration of his life and work became almost a national charismatic cult during the 19th and 20th centuries, and his influence has long been strong on Scottish literature. In 2009 he was chosen as the greatest Scot by the Scottish public in a vote run by Scottish television channel STV.
As well as making original compositions, Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland, often revising or adapting them. His poem "Auld Lang Syne" is often sung at Hogmanay, and "Scots Wha Hae" served for a long time as an unofficial national anthem of the country. Other poems and songs of Burns that remain well known across the world today include "A Red, Red Rose"; "A Man's A Man for A' That"; "To a Louse"; "To a Mouse"; "The Battle of Sherramuir"; "Tam o' Shanter"; and "Ae Fond Kiss".
Hear, Land o' Cakes, and brither Scots,
Frae Maidenkirk to Johnie Groat's;-
If there's a hole in a' your coats,
I rede you tent it:
A chield's amang you takin notes,
And, faith, he'll prent it.
Scotland
Quotes, by Robert Burns , Source: On Captain Grose's Peregrinations Thro' Scotland
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Farewell, my friends! farewell, my foes!
My peace with these, my love with those.
The bursting tears my heart declare;
Farewell, the bonnie banks of Ayr.
Rivers
Quotes, by Robert Burns , Source: The Banks of Ayr
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Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes,
Flow gently, I'll sing thee a song in thy praise.
Rivers
Quotes, by Robert Burns , Source: Flow Gently, Sweet Afton
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Ayr, gurgling, kissed his pebbled shore,
O'erhung with wild woods, thickening green;
The fragrant birch and hawthorn hoar
Twined amorous round the raptures scene.
Rivers
Quotes, by Robert Burns , Source: To Mary in Heaven
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Then horn for horn they stretch and strive;
Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive.
Haste
Quotes, by Robert Burns , Source: To a Haggis
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In durance vile here must I wake and weep,
And all my frowsy couch in sorrow steep.
Prison
Quotes, by Robert Burns , Source: Epistle from Esopus to Maria, in Chambers' "Burns' Life and Work", vol. IV, p. 54
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Now simmer blinks on flowery braes,
And o'er the crystal streamlet plays.
Summer
Quotes, by Robert Burns , Source: The Birks of Aberfeldy
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Oh, stay, sweet warbling woodlark, stay,
Nor quit for me the trembling spray,
A hapless lover courts thy lay,
Thy soothing, fond complaining.
Larks
Quotes, by Robert Burns , Source: Address to the Woodlark
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Comin' through the rye, poor body,
Comin' through the rye,
She draigl't a' her petticoatie,
Comin' through the rye
. . . .
Gin a body meet a body
Comin' through the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body
Need a body cry?
Kisses
Quotes, by Robert Burns , Source: The Bob-tailed Lass, taken from an old song
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My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here;
My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer.
Heart
Quotes, by Robert Burns , Source: My Heart's in the Highlands, from an old song, "The Strong Winds of Derry"
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At length his lonely cot appears in view,
Beneath the shelter of an aged tree;
Th' expectant wee-things, toddling, stacher thro'
To meet their Dad, wi' flichterin noise an' glee.
Home
Quotes, by Robert Burns , Source: The Cotter's Saturday Night (st. 3)
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To make a happy fireside clime
To weans and wife,
That's the true pathos and sublime
Of human life.
Home
Quotes, by Robert Burns , Source: Epistle to Dr. Blacklock
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And may you better reck the rede,
Than ever did th' adviser.
Advice
Quotes, by Robert Burns , Source: Epistle to a Young Friend
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Ah, gentle dames! it gars we greet,
To think how mony consels sweet,
How mony lengthened, sage advices,
The husband frae the wife despises.
Advice
Quotes, by Robert Burns , Source: Tam o'Shanter (l. 33)
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Misled by Fancy's meteor-ray,
By passion driven;
But yet the light that led astray,
Was light from Heaven.
Light
Quotes, by Robert Burns , Source: The Vision
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Affliction's sons are brothers in distress;
A brother to relieve, how exquisite the bliss!
Affliction
Quotes, by Robert Burns , Source: In Eutropium (II, 149)
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Then gently scan your brother man,
Still gentler sister woman;
Though they may gang a' kennin' wrang
To step aside is human.
Liberality
Quotes, by Robert Burns , Source: Address to Unco Guid
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Green, slender, leaf-clad holly boughs
Were twisted gracefu' round her brows,
I took her for some Scottish Muse,
By that same token,
An' come to stop those reckless vows,
Would soon be broken.
Holly
Quotes, by Robert Burns , Source: The Vision (duan I, st. 9)
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Or were I in the wildest waste,
Sae bleak and bare, sae bleak and bare,
The desert were a paradise
If thou wert there, if thou were there.
Paradise
Quotes, by Robert Burns , Source: Oh! Wert Thou in the Cold Blast
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